Need Help Using Evernote with a Group for Task Management

[reniwqwil5 0]

Hello,

I found Evernote, through thesecretweapon.org which is an organization method that has really helped me manage tasks. It's a glorified To-Do list.

It hinges on setting up Notebooks and Tagging Notes a certain way in Evernote.

As an individual, it has really helped me professionally. I was really struggling with dropping small tasks through the cracks and having it come back round to bite me.

I also had mild success implementing it between my wife. At one point we were selling a house and moving across country. We pretty successfully used it simply by logging into the same account.

Currently I manage a small team of 5 people, and am trying to figure out how to implement the same proceedure between the five people.

The sharing feature seems awful. When shared, the tags don't transfer, and shared notes can't be moved into any notebook other than the Shared with Me notebook.

If I share a task with a team member, It doesn't get moved into the Completed notebook, when it's completed.

Any thoughts/advice?

[DTLow 5,736]

On 7/24/2020 at 2:57 AM, reniwqwil5 said:

The sharing feature seems awful. When shared, the tags don't transfer, and shared notes can't be moved into any notebook other than the Shared with Me notebook.

Instead of sharing individual notes, share notebooks

[PinkElephant 8,104]

The professional way to do it would be to get a business account for each of the 5 users. One needs to be in an admin function, setting up the information rules of who will see what, and how the cooperation should be. This would create a common workspace among all of them, where information can be shared and flow.

Or use another tool specifically made for project work ...

From your description it sounds that maybe a KANBAN app (like Trello) could be a better solution for your team management.

[Wanderling Reborn 185]

On 7/28/2020 at 6:01 PM, DTLow said:

Instead of sharing individual notes, share notebooks

This is not always feasible. Actually one thing I absolutely hate about Onenote (which I use extensively at work) is the inability to share individual notes. There's information that, as a project manager, I can't share with the rest of the team - financial data, some contract issues, some sensitive data belonging to the customers, etc. Not everyone in the project team has the same level of access. 

 

On 7/24/2020 at 5:57 AM, reniwqwil5 said:

Hello,

I found Evernote, through thesecretweapon.org which is an organization method that has really helped me manage tasks. It's a glorified To-Do list.

It hinges on setting up Notebooks and Tagging Notes a certain way in Evernote.

As an individual, it has really helped me professionally. I was really struggling with dropping small tasks through the cracks and having it come back round to bite me.

I also had mild success implementing it between my wife. At one point we were selling a house and moving across country. We pretty successfully used it simply by logging into the same account.

Currently I manage a small team of 5 people, and am trying to figure out how to implement the same proceedure between the five people.

The sharing feature seems awful. When shared, the tags don't transfer, and shared notes can't be moved into any notebook other than the Shared with Me notebook.

If I share a task with a team member, It doesn't get moved into the Completed notebook, when it's completed.

Any thoughts/advice?

To @reniwqwil5 - if you're still checking this thread - I firmly believe, based on years of personal experience, that tasks belong in a program dedicated to task management. Evernote, Onenote, a mindmapping program, even a simple text file are great for brainstorming, but once a concrete task is identified, it needs to go into a service (app, program) that was specifically designed to handle tasks. Not mere checklists. This service should have the ability to assign due dates and reminders to tasks, delegate them to other team members, search and filter by project or tags or due dates, sync to mobile devices so that I could get a reminder anywhere. The key to not letting small tasks fall through the cracks is to (a) write all of them down and (b) set up reminders. 

I use plaintext tags everywhere (just because they are going to work across the board with different software). They are very easy to add while typing by using automation software like AutoHotKey. I then copy the individual tasks to the task managing system (also can be easily sped  up with AHK). I use Outlook on Windows and MS ToDo on my iPad / phone (they use the same data), but only because our company is using Exchange. Any decent task management service (e.g. Trello that @PinkElephantsuggested above) would work as long as it supports reminders, due dates, and task delegation. (Although Outlook is extremely good).  From there, I set up due dates and reminders, and delegate tasks to other people.

A typical text I would type in a meeting would look something like this:

Proposal #tgDue end of the month need an estimate from #tgJeff #tgFollowUp #tgAct 

Typing these tags is just a three letter combo thanks to automation (e.g. #tgFollowUp is created when I type qqu followed by space, qqa = #tgAct etc).

After the meeting is over, I copy all of the note lines that have #tgAct in them into Outlook tasks. This can be done with a single click in Onenote, or automated using AHK if you're using some other program. I assign due dates and reminders as needed, and delegate whatever needs to be delegated (hence #tgJeff and #tgFollowUp). I then erase all #tgAct tags. Every now and then I search for #tgAct across my notes to make sure I didn't miss any. 

This way, all tasks get captured and I am reminded of them. After that, ***** up is entirely my problem...